Red Dress
by itskindafuntodotheimpossible
Summary: Josh and Donna's relationship had such a connection to that damn red dress. One-shot inspired by the season 2 episode The Portland Trip.


Hi

This is a West Wing one-shot inspired by the season 2 episode The Portland Trip. I'm not sure if people still read these West Wing fanfics but if they do then I'm looking at doing some one shots to get character voices down before writing a chapter story on the Santos Administration.

So let me know what you think of this story, if you'd like to read a Santos administration story and if you have any one shot ideas.I don't mind writing AU or canon, I don't mind writing from Bartlet campaign, Bartlet administration, Democratic primaries, Santos presidential campaign or Santos administration and I ship Josh/Donna, Sam/Ainsley, Charlie/Zoey, CJ/Danny, Toby/Andi and Will/Kate.

So there is my little into to me as a West Wing fic writer

Itskindafuntodotheimpossible

* * *

"Can I have the electricity back Donna?" Josh asked as he placed down the phone in his office

"No" she replied, walking out towards her desk carrying the necessary files

"Why?" he questioned, follow her out

"It's time to go"

"Not for me. Matt Skinner is coming down from the hill"

"When did this happen?"

"2 minutes ago. Did you have plans?"

"Did I have plans?"

"Did you?"

"Look at me" she demanded with annoyance

Stopping to ogle her he responded "Hey you look good

"Yes I do"

"You weren't wearing that during the day today"

"Pity the girl who tries to get something past you Josh"

"Did you steal that dress?"

"I bought this dress"

"But you're returning it tomorrow"

"Yes I am"

"That's stealing"

"I'm giving it back"

"After wearing it once"

"There's a word for this"

"It's stealing"

"I'm a girl on a budget Josh, I'm being thrifty" she snarked back, grabbing her coat

"Yes and felonious. What are your plans?"

"Look"

"What are your plans?"

"We're having drinks, we're having dinner, we're dancing, we are having dessert"

"No problem. You can do all those things except the drink, the dancing and the dessert."

"Josh"

Looking at his watch he added, "And you need to be done with dinner in an hour and 5 minutes"

"Do you see what I'm wearing?"

"If you want to have sex you better do it during dinner"

"This is the guy Josh, this is a great guy. His name is Todd"

"You met him for five minutes at a party"

"I got the good vibe"

"Ok" he said walking away

"I have an excellent sense about these things"

Turning back to face her with an amused look on his face he said, "You actually have no sense about these things. You have no vibe, you have terrible taste in men and your desire to be coupled up will always and forever drown out any small sense of self or self-worth that you may have"

"You're a downer. I'm calling you deputy downer from now on"

He stopped for a moment, looking at her and regretting his words after seeing their effect on her. As she walked away so did he, back into his office, rolling down his sleeves.

"Be back by the time I'm done with Skinner"

Josh sighed as he sat down at his desk. He loved the back and forth between him and Donna. She was an amazing assistant and there was no denying she was attractive, tonight's outfit clearly highlighted that. Sometimes, especially since she nursed him back to health after Rosslyn, he found himself dreaming about his hands roaming over her smooth alabaster skin, dreaming about them dating, about how that would affect the president, their working relationship but most importantly how it would change them. He may have seemed a fool about anything non-political, anything real, to most people but he knew he was attracted to her, he knew if he could he would take her in his arms and kiss her as long as she'd let him but his realistic side told him it was a fairy tale.

* * *

"Excuse me" Donna squeaked out like a shy child

"Hey"

"I'm back"

"Hi Donna"

"Hi Congressman"

"How was your date?"

"Uh it was good. Josh, I'll be round"

"Thanks" he replied dismissively

As Donna walked away he watched her. Talking with Congressman Skinner about marriage then seeing Donna looking so amazing and talking about her date being good he couldn't help but feel jealous. Donna should be his, he should marry her.

* * *

"Tonight stunk Josh"

"I'm sorry about that"

"I didn't mean having to work although that was a treat. I meant the guy"

"Who was he?"

"A lobbyist with Travis West. He was pretty full of himself and without a lot of cause to be."

"An obnoxious insurance lobbyist what were the odds"

"That's not funny Josh"

"I gotta go see Leo"

"I'll call you tomorrow"

"You look really great in that dress tonight Donna. You should buy it for yourself"

He watched her walk away and wished he could follow. Hearing her say that the date was actually bad made him feel better, especially because as much as he loved ruining her dates, he hated how it hurt her when he did it and this time actually hadn't been his fault. He'd figure out how to show he cared one day.

* * *

The next day he was walking through Georgetown Park, searching for a birthday present to send to his mother when he saw Donna. She was in a shop returning the dress from the night before.

_Damn_ he thought _she deserved to keep that dress_

He watched as the shop assistant put the dress behind the counter, gave Donna her refund and watched as Donna walked out of the store.

Josh ducked into the nearest shop, unfortunately for him it was Victoria's Secret, a store that Donna was about to walk into.

"Joshua Lyman why are you in a lingerie store?"

"It's uh my mom's birthday and I uh needed to get her a um present"

"Josh"

"Yes Donna"

"I don't think you'll find something in here"

"You never know. I'd try anything"

"Josh"

"What Donna?"

"If you're actually here to get something for some chippy you're dating you didn't need to lie"

"Donna I really just need to get my mom a birthday present"

"Ok then, next time you whinge about me being in charge of Christmas gifts I'll remind you of this moment. But I really think you're much more likely to find your mom something nice in the perfume shop"

"Well I'll um just try there if I can't find her a nice robe or pyjamas or something I guess"

"Well see you in the office on Monday"

"See you Monday"

Donna strolled over to look at some bras while Josh quickly chose a robe and purchased it, sending a glance in Donna's direction as she strolled to the changing room to try on some things on.

Taking advantage of the fact that Josh knew Donna would be in there for a while he quickly ducked over to the dress store, bought the red dress, had it gift wrapped and left the mall as quickly as possible.

* * *

When Donna arrived at work on Monday to see a box with a bow on it, Josh was waiting where he could see her but she couldn't see him. He saw her face of confusion as she took off her jacket and walked to the box and started to unwrap it. He saw her eyes light up when she saw it was the red dress. He saw her look towards his office and sigh with a smile on her face.

* * *

They never spoke of the dress. Josh shut her down every time she tried.

* * *

The day she quit she went straight to her wardrobe and just stared at the dress. Everything that had happened the first campaign, the Mary Marsh incident, Mandy, Rosslyn, Cliff, the MS, Commander Reese, re-election, Amy, Zoe being kidnapped, the Carrick incident, the shutdown and Gaza, Donna couldn't help but think of how much they had been through. But the red dress was a symbol of so many things and Donna couldn't help but think she was closing the door on something good.

During the lead up to the New Hampshire primary Josh found himself ducking into a store to get out of the cold. It wasn't until he was inside that he heard Will and Donna speaking.

"Go on Donna, treat yourself. That red dress would look amazing on you"

"I already have an amazing red cocktail dress"

"Then why don't you ever wear it to our cocktail events?"

"Too many memories connected to it. I don't wear red dresses anymore. Let's just keep wandering around the stores until the VP gets here"

Josh knew they'd see him on the way out so he quickly left the store and ducked into the one next to it. He didn't even notice Donna walk in.

"Joshua Lyman why are you in a bridal store"

"I um, it was cold. I needed to get inside so I've been walking around looking at what New Hampshire has to offer"

"Right" she muttered, and walked off to look around the store

* * *

When Ellie Bartlet invited Donna to her wedding, Donna accepted but didn't have much time to give it thought. They were in the middle of a presidential campaign and she had other things to focus on.

That's why, when the day of the wedding arrived, Donna didn't have a dress organised.

_Crap_, Donna thought as she walked to her wardrobe, _what do I have that I can wear to a wedding?_

Opening the wardrobe her eyes were immediately drawn to one item. She wanted to wear it, so badly wanted to wear it. But instead she grabbed a different dress and started to get changed for the wedding.

* * *

By the time President and First Lady Santos held a cocktail party for their 15th wedding anniversary two and a half years into his first term, Donna and Josh were happily living together and fulfilling their Chief of Staff duties.

Josh had to stay in the office with the President to deal with an incident that occurred during the withdrawal of troops from Kazakhstan while Donna went home to change for the party.

After changing in his office and walking over to the East Room, his first aim was to find his girlfriend and it didn't take him long. There was Donna, chatting with the Santos, in the red dress that Josh had given her all those years earlier.

He had been searching for the perfect time to propose, the ring was in his pocket like it had been every day since he bought it after their 39th day in office when he had a bad day because they hadn't been able to save 3 American peacekeepers that had been taken hostage in the Palestine/Israel peacekeeping mission. He had come home broken; she was waiting inside for him and wordlessly managed to comfort him. That's when he knew he had to buy a ring. They loved each other and it felt so stupid to him in that moment that they weren't married. But then they had a big fight, he thought she wouldn't want to marry him and he got scared. It took him till the night of President Santos's first State of the Union address to ask her to move in and since then he had scared himself into thinking he'd screw up a proposal.

And that's how a red dress caused Joshua Lyman, chief of staff to the President of the United States to propose to Donnatella Moss, his former assistant and current chief of staff to the First Lady of the United States, to propose to her in the office that now belonged to his best friend but had been where he first realised he loved her.

* * *

Ok so that was probably a very corny ending but I just loved the idea that Josh would take her back to where so much of their relationship happened.

Please review)


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